Role of Conflict in Shaping Fertility Preferences in Rwanda

RESUMO

Conflicts affect the social and economic conditions that could account for the stall in fertility decline in Sub-Saharan Africa. For Rwanda; the total fertility rate decreased very rapidly to 6.1 in the eighties but stalled at that level in the nineties. Part of the stall can be attributed to a lack of fertility control; but the question is whether social upheaval also affects fertility preferences. We identify three mechanisms through which the Rwanda conflict have led to a preference for larger families mortality experience; modernization and the attitudes of third parties. Using data from DHS; we tested the contribution of these mechanisms to the preference for small; medium or large families. With the exception of sibling mortality; there is a strong impact of these mechanisms on the preference for large families; yet they do not fully account for the shifts in preferences over the years